WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - After playing seven of its last eight matches away from Williamsburg, the William and Mary men’s tennis team returns to its friendly confines in opening a six-match homestand to close out the regular season. The Tribe hosts a doubleheader on Saturday, March 23, against No. 27 Notre Dame and Morgan State at the McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center. The Green and Gold faces the Irish at 10 a.m., before meeting the Bears at 5 p.m. Live stats will be available for both matches at TribeAthletics.com.

Scouting the Tribe

W&M snapped a seven-match losing skid with a 4-1 win over Troy on the final day of the National Blue Gray Tennis Classic on March 17. Six of the Tribe’s seven losses over the recent slide though came against teams in the national rankings, including five setbacks to national top-35 opponents. After dropping its first two at the Blue Gray Classic to No. 29 Cornell and No. 34 Columbia, W&M picked up a 4-1 win over Troy on the strength of the doubles point and wins at the bottom three singles posts. Senior Adrian Vodislav, freshman Scott Huang and junior John Banks recorded victories at the No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 positions, respectively, to give the Green and Gold the team triumph. Junior Ben Guthrie, who is ranked No. 119 nationally in singles, teamed with Banks to win at the No. 2 position against Troy, while junior Ben Hoogland and Huang combined for a win at No. 3 to give W&M the doubles point.

Scouting No. 27 Notre Dame

Notre Dame enters the match with the Tribe at 10-7 and ranked No. 27 nationally, following a 6-1 setback against No. 3 USC on Wednesday. Six of the Irish’s seven losses have come to teams currently ranked in the national top 25, while Notre Dame also owns wins over No. 19 Illinois, No. 31 Michigan and No. 33 Cornell. Prior to its match against the Trojans, Notre Dame went 2-1 at the National Blue Gray Classic, falling the semifinals to Boise State. Fighting Irish head coach Bob Bayliss leads ND for the 26th season. Bayliss, who is the winningest active coach in college tennis with 756 career wins, is retiring following the 2013 season. Greg Andrews is the Irish’s top player and is ranked No. 96 nationally with a 14-11 record, including six wins over nationally ranked opponents. Andrews and Spencer Talmadge comprise Notre Dame’s top doubles team at 14-11 on the year, while Alex Lawson and Billy Pecor are 11-8 and ranked No. 69 nationally. Notre Dame leads the all-time series with the Tribe at 11-2, and Saturday will be the ninth straight season in which the Tribe and Irish have met. W&M will look for its first win over Notre Dame since 2008 when it downed the Irish, 4-3, in South Bend.

Scouting Morgan State

The Bears have been on a tear recently, winning their last two contests and three of its last five. Morgan State enters the weekend at 3-12 on the year and will travel to Howard on Friday, before coming to Williamsburg on Saturday. The Bears started its recent streak with a 4-3 win at Robert Morris and have won their last two, both in MEAC play, downing Hampton, 4-1, on March 17 and Coppin State, 6-1, on March 19. W&M and Morgan State have four common opponents in UMBC, George Mason, Liberty, Richmond and Navy. The Tribe was 4-0 against the quartet, while the Bears went 0-4. W&M won the previous two meetings between the teams in 7-0 fashion each of the last two seasons in Williamsburg.

News and Notes

- W&M head coach Peter Daub is closing in on win No. 500. With the Tribe's win over Troy on March 17, the 20th-year W&M headman has 498 career victories, including 287 in Williamsburg.

- Junior Ben Guthrie picked up his second national singles ranking in the latest poll released by the ITA on March 12. He garnered his first career national singles ranking at No. 103 on Feb. 20 and moved back into the rankings at No. 119 in the most recent poll. After missing most of the dual-match season due to injury, Guthrie returned to the Tribe singles lineup at the Blue Gray Classic, playing at No. 2 against No. 29 Cornell and Troy, but both matches were abandoned when the team results were decided.

- The Tribe closes out the regular season with six straight home matches, before hosting the 2013 CAA Championship, April 19-21, in Williamsburg. Following the Notre Dame-Morgan State doubleheader, the Green and Gold will host its final doubleheader of the season against James Madison (10 a.m.) and Delaware (5 p.m.) on Saturday, March 30. W&M closed out the regular season at home against Richmond on April 10 (5 p.m.) and Old Dominion on April 13 at 2 p.m. The CAA Championship for both men’s and women’s tennis will be played at the Millie West Tennis Facility, April 19-21.